Sunday, October 21, 2012

Kate Morton is the
author for Downton Abbey lovers.Her
historical fiction pulls the reader into the English countryside and she always,
always delivers.In The Secret Keeper she’s upped the mystery quotient yet kept her appealing
evocation of British life.At a 1960s
summer picnic on her brother Gerry’s second birthday, sixteen-year-old Laurel
escapes the chaos to dream in a tree house when a stranger arrives and
speaks to her mother as she carries baby Gerry and the family’s special occasion cake knife tied with a bow.Laurel feels that
something’s wrong especially when her mother wrests Gerry away as the man
reaches for him.

She
was watching her mother’s face, an expression on it she’d never seen before.
Fear, she realized, Ma was frightened. The
effect on Laurel was instant. Certainties of a lifetime turned to smoke and
blew away. Cold alarm moved in to take
their place.

“Hello, Dorothy,” the man said. “It’s
been a long time.”

He knew Ma’s name. The man was no
stranger. . .

The next thing happened quickly.

It was the liquid silver flash that
Laurel would remember. The way sunlight
caught the metal blade, and the moment was very briefly beautiful.

Then the knife came down, the special
knife, plunging deep into the man’s chest.

Laurel told the policeman the truth. She answered all his
questions and told him that the man seemed scary and that he’d lurched toward
the baby. But when he’d asked if there
was anything else, anything she’d forgotten, she said, no. She knew she’d told the truth but things felt strange and uncertain. Later that day she realized
that she hadn't told the policeman that the man had known her mother’s name. When her father came to comfort her, he told
her that the man had been causing problems in the area and that it was over
and all would be fine. Then he told her
that they’d keep what happened to themselves so the younger children wouldn't be frightened.

And
they had. It became the great unspoken
event in their family’s history. The sisters weren't told and Gerry was
certainly too young to remember, though they’d been wrong about that as things
turned out.

Fifty years later, Laurel is a lauded actor, one that
reminded this reader of Judi Dench, and she’s headed home for Dorothy’s ninetieth
birthday, determined to find out what really happened at that long-ago picnic
before it’s too late. She retraces Dorothy’s
life from before World War II, through her days in London during the blitz and
her farm life in the 1960s and beyond.
Laurel’s investigation uncovers characters from her mother’s past whose
stories begin to unravel the mystery at the root of the decisions marking
Dorothy’s life. It is in these characters and their stories that The Secret
Keeper shines. Vivian, Dorothy’s
neighbor during the war, and Jimmy, Dorothy’s first love, are memorable
characters living in a special time that Morton brings to life with panache.

The Forgotten
Garden is still my favorite of Morton’s four novels although it isn't as polished as The Secret Keeper. If you haven’t read any of her novels, I’d
start with her first, The House at
Riverton, so you can watch her writing evolve. The Secret Keeper will appeal to readers looking
for a saga offering escape with intriguing characters, social climbing, jealousy, betrayal, and
intricate plot twists. Above all though, this novel is about second chances and renewal and readers will love it for that. Kate Morton successfully weaves the lives of English common folk surviving in tiny warren apartments alongside the gentry in their grand estates.

Summing it Up: Read this to escape to World War II London and the
English countryside. As Dorothy’s early
life in London reveals clues to the mysterious stranger’s death, allow yourself
to fall under the spell of Kate Morton’s recreation of Britain during the blitz
and in the years after when secrets haunt those that keep them.

Simon & Schuster is putting on a big push for Morton who lives in Brisbane, Australia. She’s in the United States for appearances and interviews this week.

Friday, October 19, 2012

With Halloween coming soon, it’s
time to sit down with a cup of hot cider and enjoy this silly, wry take on Ludwig Bemelmans' beloved Madeline books that should make everyone including
adults laugh out loud. Author Rick Walton’s use of the pen name Ludworst
Bemonster* adds to the fun while Nathan Hale’s childlike illustrations evoke typical
preschooler fantasies of what monsters should
look like.

The book opens with these lines:

In a creepy old
castle all covered with spines,
Lived twelve ugly monsters in two crooked lines
In two crooked lines, they bonked their heads,
Pulled out their teeth and wet their beds.

The book goes on to note that:

The ugliest one was Frankenstein.

He scared people out of
their socks.

He could even frighten
rocks.

This
parody will make little boys whoop with laughter. It’s just “scary” enough for them to love but not so frightening that it’d cause nightmares. Girls who love Madeline will enjoy it, too,
but I’d buy it for boys.

If
I were teaching preschool or kindergarten, I’d use this as a story starter and
let the kids create their own monster books based on a slew of rhyming favorites
I’d set out for them to peruse. I’d also encourage them to make their own
crooked lines and walk like their favorite monsters might.

Ages four and upSumming it Up: Enjoy the Halloween season with this silly, "scary" parody of the Madeline books. Give it to your favorite preschool or kindergarten-aged boy.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

When Will Schwalbe’s mother was dying of pancreatic
cancer, he often sat with her during chemo and they talked about books. They’d always talked about books together but
they soon realized that this was different; they’d created their own book club –
one with just two members.

Early on, I began wishing I’d known Mary
Ann Schwalbe. What a woman she was:
building a library in Afghanistan, serving as the Director of Admissions at Harvard,
sharing unique experiences with her grandchildren. But, wait a minute; I know Mary Ann Schwalbe very well.
Her son made me love this exceptional woman. I sat in on their discussions.
I was there for the setbacks and the
celebrations. At first I was concerned
that the cancer diagnosis would mean that this book would be sad and I wasn’t
sure I’d want read about this lovely woman’s demise. I’d been through something quite similar with
my own mother and fear gripped me. Thankfully, I was wrong, utterly wrong; this
book is a joyful tribute to life, living, the sheer pleasure of reading, and
the shared intimacy of sharing what you cherish with someone you love.

What reader wouldn’t delight in a book
that celebrates reading and provides so many great titles. A book that takes the reader through chemotherapy
treatments during which she and her son talk about the books they’re reading
doesn’t sound like it’d be mesmerizing but it is. When Will Schwalbe asked his
mother “What are you reading?” I was part of the conversation. And when books became a way to introduce
topics that concerned them, I was cheering because some of those same books had
helped me through similar difficulties.

My own mother and I loved talking about Wallace
Stegner’s Crossing to Safety during
my father’s illness and Schwalbe aptly illustrated the manner in which novels can
help readers confront tough times. He notes, “The novel gave us a way to discuss some of the things she was facing
and some of the things I was facing. “Do
you think he’ll be all right,” I would ask her, referring to Sid, who is very
much alone at the end. “Of course it will
be tough on him, but I think he’ll be fine.
I’m quite sure of it. Maybe not right away. But he’ll be fine,” she would answer, also
referring to Sid, but perhaps to my father as well.”

Yet, the Schwalbe conversations weren’t
just about dying, they also shared happy stories. About Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader, “How could anyone who loves books not love a
book that is itself so in love with books?”
Their enjoyment of this and books like The Elegance of the Hedgehog, People of the Book, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Olive KItteridge,
Suite Française, and AThousand
Splendid Suns made this voracious reader thrill to the fact that they also
valued books that I adored. That made me
eager to try the books they read that I hadn’t and thus a bonus of this marvel
is that I now look forward to reading Too
Much Happiness, Felicia’s Journey, The Bite of the Mango and several
others.

The book includes part of Mary Ann
Schwalbe’s obituary by Marina Vaizey: “This dynamo of energy was contained in a
small, quiet, smiling, elegantly dressed woman, who could appear as
conventional as a lady who lunched, but traveled the world often in desperately
trying circumstances: she was an electoral observer in the Balkans, and was
shot at in Afghanistan. Mary Anne saw
the worst and believed the best.”

This book is a paean to Carpe diem. As Schwalbe wrote, “I was learning that when you’re with someone who is dying you may need
to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same
time.”

Will Schwalbe’s tribute to his mother and
to the power of reading is a book for every book lover. It’s also the perfect gift for anyone in a
book club. I initially thought the title
mawkish but then Schwalbe reminded me, “We’re
all in the end-of-our life book clubs, whether we acknowledge it or not; each
book we read may well be the last selection; each conversation the final one.” Carpe diem, indeed.

Summing it Up: Buy this book for everyone
on your holiday list. Immerse yourself
in the life of an exceptional woman.
Discover a list of enticing new titles.
The End of Your Life Book Club is
an ebullient tribute to the power of the written word.

About Me - Trina Hayes

Connecting people with books they'll love is what I do. I lead three book clubs and participate in another. I speak about books to library, university, social and civic groups and I'd love to speak to your gathering. My annual book list of the more than 100 books I read and review every year comes out every November. Find past lists on the pages listed below. Because I'm always hungry for good books, I categorize the books on the lists and on my posts by food groups as explained in the review categories listed below.

Contact me with questions or about hiring me to speak at trinabookhungry@gmail.com or by posting a comment on one of my reviews.